Holidays are my favorite time of the year to read children’s books. When I was a child, I loved reading and hearing stories read to me during Christmas time. Today, I still like to read those same books for nostalgic reasons. One of my favorite books from childhood is A Little Golden Book called Walt Disney’s Santa’s Toy Shop.
Going through my old things, I found an old version of Santa’s Toy Shop in my things. Since it is old, and probably from the 1980’s or earlier, I decided to buy a newer version of the book. My plan is to use the new print of the book without worrying about damaging the older book.
Since I have a new version of the book, I wanted to write a review about this book for this year’s Blogmas!
This is what the front of the new printing of the book looks like…
I didn’t think about taking reference photographs of my old print for this post.
My old printing has a gold spine while the new printing has a red one. The reason is because this printing is part of the classic line of Little Golden Books. Other than that, it looks pretty much the same.
The art in this book was done by The Walt Disney Studio. I really loved this book growing up because The Walt Disney Studio created the illustrations for it. Back then, I wanted to be a Disney animator and wanted to look at and study all the Disney art I could find. This book was one of my favorite things to study due to the fact that it was not an animation and didn’t have anything to do with Mickey Mouse or Disney related characters. Like the title says, it is about Santa’s Toy Shop.
The book follows Santa Claus as he and everyone who lives and works at the North Pole prepares for Christmas…
Even Mrs. Claus is featured in the book as well as the elves that work there…
This printing of the book is a really nice one. Nothing, except for the color of the spine and some other details (Such as the list of Little Golden Books at the end of the book), has changed. The scale of the pictures and written words are the same. The story is also the same.
The blurb for the book on Amazon is…
The magic of the holidays and the magic of Disney combine in this charming Christmas tale!
Inspired by a 1932 Walt Disney Silly Symphony animated short, the Santa’s Toy Shop Little Golden Book was originally published in 1950. In this delightful story, Santa wants time to play with all the wonderful toys he and the elves have made, but he’s just too busy–until Mrs. Claus gives him an idea!
Disney animator Al Dempster and the Walt Disney Studio artists created a holiday classic we are proud to reissue as a Little Golden Book–for the first time in over 20 years. Great for kids 2 to 5 and collectors of all ages!
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. If you are looking for a cute yet affordable children’s book to purchase and read for Christmas, I highly recommend this book. Even thought this book was originally published in the 1950’s it is a classic tale that isn’t outdated. The illustrations are also really nice and remind me of the art for Sleeping Beauty (Which premiered in the 1950’s) yet stands on it’s own. I cannot recommend this book to anyone looking for a classic Christmas tale. I also highly recommend this reprinting of the book. The older books are harder to find and are quite expensive to purchase. Purchasing a reprint is not only an economical decision, it also reduces the worry about keeping it away from children who may want to read it themselves, yet may not be ready to take good care of an expensive book.
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!